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Bridging the gap in knowledge to action: focussing on local impact to enable community-led cohousing in the North East

Posted on 23 August, 2019 by Eve
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Dr Helen Jarvis has worked extensively with the UK Cohousing Network and other Civil Society Organisations (CSO) she tells Dr Eve Forrest about her recent ESRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) project and how the cohousing concept could help solve the current housing crisis. 

The principles of cohousing are simple: provide individuals with their own private living space, plus access to common areas and shared facilities. Cohousing schemes typically feature a mix of 15-30 houses and flats, designed as connected neighbourhoods that encourage plenty of interaction: including a common house (where neighbours prepare meals and eat together) designed to foster and support the spirit of sharing and togetherness. Key to distinguishing community-led cohousing from commercial brands of ‘co-living’ (such as The Collective, London) is the participatory design process and non-hierarchical resident management structure.

Current research shows various forms of communal housing to be a growing trend, associated with our ageing society, more people living alone, escalating house prices, and shifting lifestyle choices including eco-political awareness.  Sharing the financial and practical responsibilities of housing, rather than struggling alone, can make life easier through all stages of life. Residents who are attracted to cohousing know that they can make a difference by sharing housing and community resources with their neighbours.  To make this work they have to acquire new skills of collective governance. Combining sustainable buildings with fewer private and more shared goods helps to reduce wasteful consumption too, something we should all start thinking about given the recent statements on the current Climate Emergency.

In the UK, cohousing belongs to a niche sector of community-led housing (CLH) which has begun to effectively organise and lobby the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) as an umbrella entity: Community Led Homes. CLH brings together Community Land Trusts (CLT) (a legal entity designed to provide and protect locally valued assets), Housing Cooperatives and self-help housing (volunteers rehabilitating empty property), as well as the internationally recognised Cohousing design methodology.

My original research established public dialogue and practitioner engagement on a national scale of policy and planning in England, Wales and Scotland, concluding with a final report presented in Parliament at a launch hosted by Richard Bacon MP. Sector-wide political lobbying was instrumental in securing a record £300 million investment in CLH in 2016 through Government commitment to use the proceeds of extra stamp duty on second home sales to establish a Community Housing Fund.  Administered in two waves by Homes England, the Community Housing Fund is intended to help communities build around 6,000 affordable, eco-friendly homes, with grants of up to £75k available to community groups for pre-development revenue costs, plus capital costs for Local Authorities and Registered Providers to help make sites viable for truly affordable non-traditional housing. Sector-wide lobbying also prompted MHCLG sponsorship of further research and evidence to better understand the impact of cohousing on loneliness.

With support from an ESRC IAA I held a ‘focussing event’ for CSOs, civic leaders and housing practitioners to collectively explore local cohousing opportunities. Participants identified common dilemmas of loneliness and isolation, concern to address issues of ageing in place, fuel poverty, environments ill-suited to walking, cycling and inclusive public life, noting that joined-up solutions require us to build communities, not just units of housing.  Community-led housing empowers resident groups to create their own ‘people powered’ local housing solutions.

Impression for how a potential cohousing space might look like

Extensive grassroots engagement via the project helped identify key messages for a short video animation: North East Cohousing Shared Futures, produced in partnership with UK Cohousing Network and Community Led Homes. This resource was made freely available to all interested parties as a tool to ‘demystify’ community-led cohousing for a general audience. The film highlighted the proud tradition of voluntary, community and civil society organising in the North-East as a first step to bridging the gap in knowledge to action. This region faces unique local challenges with rising levels of in-work poverty, loneliness in later life, people and places feeling disconnected. But we can all share stories of a radical past when local communities organised for change – with our once thriving cooperative movement and the knowledge and skills are there to do so again. The North-East, despite hardships, has always had a great tradition of coming together.

All these activities started an ongoing, productive conversation that still continues after the project finished to bring community initiatives and activist groups together and connecting local community groups and spaces. For example, a North-East CLH ‘hub’ has secured Government funding to help provide training and advice to local groups. Moreover, the first elected North of Tyne mayor, Jamie Driscoll, promised ‘genuinely affordable, eco-friendly community-led housing’ as a key pledge in his ambitious manifesto, following consultation with the broad-based CSO Tyne and Wear Citizens.

While the North-East is famous for its radical past and strong support for workers and housing cooperatives in the 1970s, there are currently no inhabited cohousing projects to demonstrate success for the many groups hoping to make CLH a reality on Tyneside.  This is likely to change in the near future. Newcastle City Council has recently secured Community Housing Funds to help community groups secure planning permission on brownfield sites in the west end of the city.

Helen’s paper on Community Housing, sharing and togetherness is available here

Posted in ESRC Impact Acceleration Account | Tagged citizenship, cohousing, community, ESRC, government, housing, IAA, local | Leave a reply

Developing social entrepreneurship in emerging economies

Posted on 16 August, 2019 by Eve
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Dr Jonathan Kimmitt, a researcher based in Newcastle University Business School, studies social entrepreneurship in emerging economies. Here he talks to Dr Eve Forrest about the recent ESRC IAA project he has been working on with partners in Chile around Social Impact Bonds (SIBs).   

EF: What are Social Impact Bonds (SIBs)? 

JK: SIBs are a new policy tool for tackling significant social problems as well as the challenges in funding social entrepreneurs and/or other types of social purpose organisations such as charities/NGOs. They began in 2010 when the UK’s Ministry of Justice used them as a policy tool, designed to link the outcomes of social interventions to payments. They have since been used by others to think of new ways to fund social interventions.

EF: Tell me more about the research, what was the context of you doing this particular impact project?

Wide press coverage of the project

JK: We began the research in 2016 (along with the University of Liverpool) which developed links with partners to understand the structure and diversity of social entrepreneurship in Chile which led to a final project report. We presented these findings to the funders, policy makers, social entrepreneurs which consequently led policy makers in the new formed Chilean government to fund SIBs. It also led to Production Development Corporation (CORFO: an external partner to the project) to re-develop aspects of their entrepreneurship programmes too and the impact project grew from there. The ESRC IAA funding allowed us to follow up these connections hold events, interactive seminars and develop capacity around SIBs as a new policy tool.

Dr Kimmitt addressing policymakers in Chile

EF: What has been the main impacts of the project so far?

The research raised the question of what SIBs may look like in Chile, where the priorities exist for funding and how social entrepreneurs can be prepared for such investments and what learning is transferrable from the UK. Because I had also been involved in the evaluation of a SIB in Newcastle, we were looking to see what could be learnt from that experience. Via the IAA project there has been a large amount of interest from both within Chile and in other parts of the world, with people keeping an eye on how this more experimental approach turns out. As this is a relatively new idea in relation to investment, there were so many unknowns when we began but the project has been positively received which has been a really positive impact. However ideas are just beginning to take hold and the wider impact isn’t quite known yet, this is something the project team will continue to track well into the future.

EF: And the most challenging part of the project?

JK: Like any impact project, the main challenge is keeping track of all different areas that are being developed from businesses and policymakers reading about the research. A key issue is capturing what is being said and done, which is doubly hard when it is not a location where the research teams are based!  The Chilean government have been implementing our diagnostic tool around SIBs, so we can capture the information as they get it. We also have close links to our partner CORFO too and we are always finding out new places the research has ended up through them, which is great. The social entrepreneurs in Chile have also been developing impact measurement tools too, so they are our strongest advocates when it comes to thinking of the future of these ideas.

EF: What’s next for the research and the impact project?

JK: The project really wanted to show the potential for the public and private sector to work more closely together to solve social problems. There’s a while to go before that’s a reality but the outcomes of the impact project have been really positive so we want to keep building on that. We are also working on an early rural entrepreneurship project in Chile too, taking this approach into new regions means that the work is always developing, it’s an exciting place to be!

To find out more about the research, see the project website for more information or here, on Jonathan’s page at Newcastle University Business School.

Posted in business, ESRC Impact Acceleration Account | Tagged business, chile, entrepreneurs, goverment, Impact | Leave a reply

Taking Action for Impact

Posted on 8 August, 2019 by Eve
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Dr Eve Forrest, Impact Officer in the HaSS Faculty at Newcastle University, discusses the most recent training programme funded by the ESRC and EPSRC IAA to help bring together early stage researchers around the wider potential impact of their projects 

July 2019 saw the last session of Action for Impact (AfI), a co-produced interdisciplinary training programme for Early Career Researchers (ECRs) and PhD students across the Social Sciences and Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects.  The AfI project began as a novel way to enable and establish new informal networks and promote early stage collaborations between different subject areas. Colleagues in Newcastle Career and Enterprise services, along with EPSRC/ESRC IAA teams in Newcastle and Durham Universities developed an innovation and enterprise programme aimed at creating impact from all kinds of research.  Whether that was building AI health interventions, or helping VCSE partners in reaching new audiences. AfI is the first time that an impact-driven, cross-disciplinary training initiative between the two Universities had taken place and it worked really successfully to bring new researchers together in teams or just meet to discuss their work.

The three day residential/non-residential programmes focused on developing researcher attitudes and behaviours regardless of the kind of research they conducted. Course content was designed to provide scope for development of existing or new ideas in a multi-disciplinary environment too, to help inspire potential ideas in the future. Participants were set provocations and real-world problems by local businesses to test their creative approaches and problem-solving abilities. World class facilitators, trainers and experts in the field of innovation development worked alongside the Enterprise Team specialists to provide bespoke, innovative training methods to enable delegates to complete the training with a clear, agreed action plan for their own work.

The legacy of the AfI programme will still be ongoing for a while, however the training upskilled a total of 56 ECRs and PhD students helping develop their joint impact strategies, group working and realizing the social, commercial and enterprise opportunities of their research in future. The AfI programme was also shortlisted for a 2019 Educate North award for Innovation and two of the cohort alumni have already gone on to win categories in the Newcastle University Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Awards 2019. Who knows what might happen next! 

 

Posted in ESRC Impact Acceleration Account, Events | Tagged early career researchers, EPSRC, ESRC, interdisciplinary, training | Leave a reply

Breaking down the barriers: using archives to support innovation in school curriculum making

Posted on 31 May, 2019 by Eve
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Ulrike Thomas is a researcher based in the Centre for Learning and Teaching (CfLaT) at Newcastle University. Here she and her collaborators at Learning Arc tell us about the ESRC IAA funded project that explored working with archives and secondary schools.

Learning Arc is a group of North East archive educators whose members meet regularly to share good practice in archive education. They are dedicated to developing a deeper understanding of local heritage through the rich resource of archives. Regular discussions between members revealed that archives are being underused by schools- in particular secondary schools – with the archive educators struggling to find ways to break down the barriers and work on sustained projects with this older age group of students. In order to find ways to challenge this situation, the members of Learning Arc decided they would benefit from training on innovative educational practises, thus enabling them to develop projects which address the specific needs of secondary schools.

Academics and researchers from CfLaT have been working with schools over many years on the development of innovative pedagogies to tackle the issue of student (dis)engagement.  Most recently their research has focussed on Project-Based Learning using community resources- a process known as Community Curriculum Making.  Central to this approach is that students ‘go places, meet people and do and make things’ and that there is an external audience for the work giving it value and ensuring its quality. The Leaning Arc members and CfLaT successfully applied for funding to run a project that included:

  • Training delivered by CfLaT which introduced the Learning Arc members to innovative curriculum approaches/pedagogies as well as tools for planning and evaluation.
  • Funding to support two of the archives to develop pilot projects with two secondary schools.
  • Evaluation of the impact of the projects on the archivists, students and teachers.

The pilot projects: initial planning

Initial planning took place using the tools and Community Curriculum principals introduced during the training. Two schools local to the archives were then approached to gauge interest in the projects. This led to the involvement of the Head of Humanities at Berwick Academy and a Design and Technology teacher at George Stephenson High School, Killingworth.

The initial planning was crucial as a starting point for discussions with these teachers, however it was made clear that their collaboration was vital to guarantee that the projects addressed the agendas and working practices of the schools. Interestingly the schools developed two very different projects over very different timeframes, yet the planning tools ensured that both were underpinned by the key principals of Community Curriculum Making. Further planning involved the experts who would be working with the students on their final products. This was particularly important in ensuring the feasibility of what was being asked of the teachers and students.

Example project: From Cholera to Comic

A group of Year 9 students at Berwick Academy took part in a 4 day project which focussed on the cholera outbreaks in Berwick from 1832 to 1854. The students started with a visit to Newcastle University where they worked with the Special Collections Department  and took part in a science workshop in the Medical School. This was followed by 3 days at Berwick Record Office and Museum researching the local Cholera outbreaks.  The students were introduced to the archives, visited local sites affected by the outbreaks and heard about a volunteer’s research on one of the victims. They then worked with Comics Boss Lydia Wysocki on the production of a comic which would introduce the subject to a teenage audience. The comic has been published and distributed locally and the project showcased at the Berwick Literary Festival.

Students investigate cholera with staff and students at Newcastle University Medical School

The final comic

The project achievements

Overall this project has been a great success for all those involved :

  • The relationship of the archive educators with the university facilitated access to secondary schools otherwise hard to reach.
  • The training resulted in collaboratively designed projects based on community curriculum principals which addressed the agendas and needs of the secondary schools thus ensuring their success.
  • The students developed their knowledge of archives and their local history through first-hand experience with primary sources.
  • ‘Going places, meeting people and doing and making things’ has broadened the horizons of the students, helping them to shape more complex identities and inform their aspirations.

Most importantly it has forged links between the university, local archives and schools and was a memorable and enjoyable introduction to archives for the students.

To view the comic: http://appliedcomicsetc.com/portfolio/cholera/

This blog post is a shortened version of an original magazine article published in ALES (Archives for Learning and Education)

Images courtesy of Berwick Record office 

Posted in ESRC Impact Acceleration Account, Uncategorized | Tagged archives, comics, community curriculum, new teaching approaches, schools | Leave a reply

Developing resources for living with altered eating difficulties

Posted on 5 April, 2018 by Eve
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Last week it was announced that Chef Sam Storey has been nominated for a Cook of the Year award in recognition for the work he has done as part of the Altered Eating (AE) Network in collaboration with Northumbria University. Here Dr Duika Burges Watson talks to us about the network, her ESRC IAA project alongside her ongoing work on helping improve the resources and quality of life for those living with altered eating difficulties.

Losing the ability to eat well, what we term altered eating, can reduce quality of life and have serious consequences for health and wellbeing. Previous work with head and neck cancer survivors showed that their needs are highly complex (including physical, social difficulties; sensory deficits and mental health aspects) however they had not been addressed by clinical researchers in a ‘holistic’ way.

The AE network provides a forum for researchers interested in comprehensive approaches to address temporary and chronic eating difficulties. This group builds on a National Institute for Health Research/Research for Patient Benefit funded project with survivors of head and neck cancer who were clear that current regimes of medical assessment and support did not address or ameliorate the way an altered relationship to food had changed their lives far beyond the realms of weight and nutrition.

The ESRC IAA project in particular involved scoping workshops to find out the range of difficulties faced by patients and what support was needed: participants identified the need for practical advice such as cooking hints and tips. Sam, the expert in-house chef spent hours in the community kitchen experimenting with everything from chicken stock to chocolate mousse, with the aim of bringing back the lost pleasures of food and eating together. Tasting workshops were held and clips and recipes are now openly available on You Tube as a public resource (we are building on this).  A number of charities and groups whose members also have altered eating difficulties also came forward (e.g. those experiencing Parkinson’s disease; Sjogren’s syndrome) as a result of these workshops too, which was encouraging and showed this work could be widely applicable in a number of settings.  Their specific needs also highlighted the demand for a more general framework that could help professional practitioners e.g. dentists, dieticians and oncologists think about patients and their individual altered eating needs.

We have now produced a definition of altered eating and a framework for holistic assessment of eating disruption from the physical to the social and emotional; alongside a menu of interventions to address eating disruption (for example: smell and taste training, cooking workshops, coping tips and hints). We are now developing an easy to use assessment tool to measure and visualise the extent of eating difficulties in order that clinicians and patients can easily see the range of issues involved, and to help them identify management strategies or medical support that can help (the ‘AE package’). The research network is pioneering new psychosocial interventions for chronic or life altering illness and new approaches to clinical practice. We are giving ‘thought to food’ and ongoing research hopes to make sensory pleasure a reality for those living with altered eating difficulties in the future.

 

Posted in ESRC Impact Acceleration Account | Tagged altered eating, chef, cooking, ESRC, food, holistic, IAA, pleasure | Leave a reply

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